This week, scientists confirmed the detection of 62 additional moons circling Saturn, elevating its total count to an impressive 145 moons. Previously, Science Times reported that 92 confirmed moons of Jupiter.
After the discovery of 12 new moons around Jupiter in lateq December, it briefly exceeded Saturn's moon count. Researchers from The University of British Columbia, who contributed to the discovery, said that this recent finding makes Saturn the sole planet in the Solar System with over 100 known moons.
62 New Moons Discovered Orbiting Saturn, Bring the Total to 145 and Overthrowing Jupiter's Record
Satrun's New Moons are 'Irregular Moons'
Using data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii between 2019 and 2021, an international team of researchers has discovered 62 previously undetected moons. According to Live Science, the team analyzed sequential images taken during 3-hour observation windows and identified these small and dim moons, some measuring only 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) wide.
All 62 newly found moons are categorized as "irregular moons," which have distant and elliptical orbits around Saturn and often move in retrograde, opposite to the planet's rotation. The presence of clusters of these tiny moons in similar retrograde orbits suggests that they may have originated from a larger parent moon that fragmented millions of years ago, as hypothesized by the researchers.
Brett Gladman, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UBC, said that there is increasing evidence that a moderately sized moon orbiting Saturn in a backward motion was shattered approximately 100 million years ago. This finding indicates the potential cause behind the existence of these irregular moons.
The International Astronomical Union, which consists of over 12,000 scientists responsible for designating celestial bodies, is expected to officially recognize these newly discovered moons later this month.
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Violent History of Saturn's Irregular Moons
Saturn currently boasts a total of 121 irregular moons in addition to its 24 regular moons. As per Space.com, these irregular moons tend to gather in clusters based on the inclination of their orbits. The existing groupings in Saturn's system are the Inuit, Gallic, and Norse groups, named after different mythologies.
All of the newly discovered moons belong to one of these three groups, with three of them falling under the Inuit group and the majority aligning with the Norse group.
Scientists believe that these moons within the three groups formed through collisions and fragmentation of larger moons that were originally captured by Saturn. Studying the orbits of Saturn's irregular moons can provide insights into the history of such collisions within the gas giant system.
The team of researchers behind the recent discovery suggests that the abundance of tiny moons in retrograde orbits is indicative of a collision between irregular moons around Saturn approximately 100 million years ago. This collision is thought to have given rise to the moons in the Norse group.
While Jupiter briefly surpassed Saturn in terms of moon count in February 2023, with the discovery of 12 new moons, totaling 92 known Jovian moons, the title of the moon leader is not permanent. As astronomers' techniques for detecting moons continue to advance, the moon count could change hands again in the future.
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